New player confused

[Maeka]

A tip for future reference:

A full suit (tools+left side) is generally enough to craft yourself the HQ versions of the same.

So what you can do is walk up to any vendor in Ishgard, Kugane, etc and buy a full suit of current-level gear. They will be NQ but that's fine. Go get yourself the materials to craft the HQ set and if you do that, you will always be able to HQ the next tier. For example if you buy the Lv71 set and tools, you should be able to HQ the Lv71 clothes and tools which will put you in a nice position to do the same when the Lv73-74 set is reached. I HQ'd the 2nd set while wearing the HQ first set easy-peasy after the 5.1 changes. Wasn't even a challenge, and I didn't even have Manipulation unlocked at the time.

If you're STILL having trouble, try HQing the gathering materials to get HQ processed materials (or check the MB for them, a lot of the levelling materials are usually somewhat cheap-ish). It is literally impossible to fail to HQ Tools/Clothes if you are starting with HQ materials as you start with the bar 60%+ filled in.